HALO
Rocket Balloon

Updated May 15 2:00 pm:

Flight Story:

The HALO team met at the launch site in Hampstead, NC in the wee hours
of Sunday morning, May 11th. It was very cold (frost collected on the equipment)
with absolutely no wind. Perfect conditions for a balloon flight! As the
rocket crew tested out the payload and command electronics and fueled the
rocket with nitrous oxide, the balloon crew unfurled the delicate plastic
envelope on the protective ground tarp, attached the Kjome launcher and started
the inflation process.

As the sun poked up above the horizon, and with just 30 minutes
to
go before our FAA launch window closed, we ran across 2 nearly empty tanks
of helium. Concerned that we would not have enough helium in the balloon
to lift the rocket payload, we searched Hampstead and nearby Topsail Beach
for helium (not an easy task early on Saturday morning). It turned out the
local Food Lion store had two tanks they used for party balloons and sold
them to us. This saved the day and allowed us to achieve final flight lift.
The rocket crew lifted the payload and stretched the lines tight, the fill
tube on the balloon was tied off and the call to the FAA went out for imminent
lift off. With just 5 minutes to go before the deadline, we released the
balloon at 6:59 am EDT and the rockoon headed up smoothly into the still
morning sky on its way to the stratosphere.

Spectacular color video of the balloon and the side of the rocket
launch tube could be seen in the command tent. The rocket video was viewable
on another monitor, but little could be seen due to the protective plastic
wrap around the gondola.

The GPS telemetry downlinked via packet radio in APRS format started
to get weak after the rockoon exceeded 23,000 feet. The signal faded completely
into the noise and we unable to record any more usable position and altitude
reports from that point onward. We think that the internal antenna for the
packet transmitter put most of the radio signal up and down, but very little
signal made it towards the horizon as the payload headed out nearly 120 miles
out over the Atlantic.

At 8:21 am, we were calculated the estimated altitude of the
rockoon based on the ascent rate to be around 60,000 feet. I said, "Since
we are now above 49,000 feet, the barometric rocket safety switches are now
armed and the rocket can be fired at anytime." Of couse, we were hoping to
reach at least 100,000 feet before firing off the rocket. Just 30 seconds
later, I happened to be looking at the video of the balloon envelope
and thought that the balloon looked pretty full. Just then, one of
the seams tore wide open, dumped out all of it's helium and the balloon just
folded up into a long streamer of plastic! As the rocket and gondola
dropped rapidly, I shouted out to Ed KE4ROC, "Fire that rocket NOW!". We
had just over a minute to issue the fire command before the safety switch
disarmed the rocket at 49,000 feet.

Ed keyed down the 2 meter transmitter and anxiously entered the firing
code via touchtones. Nothing happened...He tried another time...nothing...and
then a third (we had only seconds left before the safeties cut in). All of
a sudden there was a bright flash and a cloud of smoke and the rocket leaped
out of the gondola and off towards space. Bits of plastic tape and the plastic
covering shredded off and fluttered past the camera view as the gondola continued
its rapid descent. Miracously, the camera had survived the rocket exhaust
blast and continued to work flawlessly until the gondola splashed into the
Atlantic Ocean.

We were treated to flashes of video from the rocket for about 30 seconds
showing tantalizing views of the curve of the Earth. Since the rocket was
spinning around, the ATV signal fluttered in and out and made it difficult
to lock onto a good picture. After that, the video signal ceased and the
rocket parachuted down into the Atlantic. We estimate our peak altitude
at 38 nautical miles. Both the gondola and the rocket splashed down about
120 miles east of the launchsite and 50 miles from the nearest land. Since
the GPS signals were unavailable, we were unable to direct the chase boat
to an accurate splashdown location. The rocket and gondola were very small
straws in an extremely large haystack and as a result, the chase boat did
not recover the payloads.

Although we did not achieve space (defined as 51 nautical miles in
altitude), we did set several records: The first amateur launch of a rockoon
(rocket launched from a balloon), the highest launch of a hybrid rocket (hybrid
referring to the nitrous oxide/asphalt fuel combination), and the highest
flying hybrid rocket to date. (de Bill Brown WB8ELK)